Media: Things we like

And so it's goodbye to the programme that arguably defined all reality
TV shows during the noughties. A widespread marketing push from Channel
4 helped drum up excitement surrounding the end of Ultimate Big Brother,
and an average of 3.7 million watched as Brian Dowling was crowned the
show's winner. Dowling's triumph was the highlight of a bumper night of
Big Brother coverage, which also included a chance to reminisce with
programmes such as Dermot's Last Supper and Davina's Big Send-Off.

The new series of The Inbetweeners

Rude, crude and very, very funny, E4's The Inbetweeners has accumulated
a sizeable cult following since it first hit our screens in 2008,
particularly among the student and "pretending to still be a student"
population. We're big fans of the Bafta-winning comedy too and were
pleased to see Will McKenzie and friends return for a third series
earlier this week. And if the first episode is anything to go by, the
new series promises to offer just as many laughs as before.

American football returning to Channel 4

Channel 4 is credited with first bringing the NFL to a mainstream UK
audience when it launched The American Football Show on Sunday evenings
in 1982, and we were pleased to see the sport return to the station this
week after a 12-year absence. The first live match of the season -
Dallas Cowboys versus the Washington Redskins - wasn't a classic, but
the programme was expertly handled by the leading analysts Gary Imlach
and Mike Carlson, which has certainly helped to boost the excitement for
the season ahead.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky's 'baby carrots' ads

As if any more proof were needed that Crispin Porter & Bogusky is still
one of the best creative agencies around, a new US ad campaign for "a
bunch of carrot farmers" shows that the agency can even make vegetables
fun. In one hilarious spot, an attractive woman is shown playing sexily
with carrots in a spoof of an ice-cream ad. In another, a guy is fired
off a cliff in a trolley while a woman shoots carrots at him from a
giant machine gun. If other agencies managed to produce ads of this
quality for vegetable brands, then we'd be well on for our
five-a-day.

AND ONE THING WE DON'T ...

The Times' circulation drop

Rupert Murdoch's The Times has seen its circulation fall below 500,000
for the first time in 16 years, with August's ABCs revealing a 1.67 per
cent drop on July's figures. The news is a particular worry when you
consider that some News International executives hoped that the
company's pay-wall strategy would actually prompt an immediate rise in
readers buying printed issues of the publication. In fact, the
newspaper's circulation has dropped off in consecutive months since the
pay-wall was put in place.